


something changed in the atmosphere (i could get used to this)

by mrsenjolras



Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, its rly just all fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 14:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14812973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsenjolras/pseuds/mrsenjolras
Summary: Nick decides to leave The Breakfast Show. Louis is just glad to get a lie in.





	something changed in the atmosphere (i could get used to this)

**Author's Note:**

> amanda texted me this morning "Someone needs to write established tomlinshaw abt nick leaving breakfast and louis being happy bc they wont need to wake up early," and i needed something to get through writer's block, so i did. thanks for the idea amanda!
> 
> some disclaimers: 1. this is totally unbeta'd and was written rather quickly so sorry for any mistakes.  
> 2\. i'm lazy and didn't want to deal with complications, so in this au tomlinshaw have been dating for like 4 years and have come out.  
> 3\. i don't really know anything about the inner workings of either the bbc or nick grimshaw's head, so the reasons i gave him for leaving are totally made up! bc this is fiction lol!
> 
> anyways hope u enjoy, title from shotgun by george ezra

The alarm blaring wakes Louis, like it does almost every day. And as he does almost every day, he rolls over with a groan and shoves his face into the pillow. “Sorry,” Nick says, voice rough with sleep. Louis grunts in response, already most of the way back into his dream. He feels Nick lean in to press a kiss to the small sliver of his face left exposed by the pillow, and then Nick gets off the bed and heads to the bathroom. Louis thinks he hears Nick say, “not much longer,” but he’s already on the brink of sleep, and he drops off before he can ask about it. 

When Louis wakes again properly, it’s closer to eleven, and he stretches in the bed contentedly, frowning a bit at the cold spot next to him. He and Nick have been together for nearly four years now, and Nick’s been on Breakfast that entire time, so you’d think Louis would be used to waking up alone, but part of him always wishes Nick will still be there when he gets up, and then they can cuddle the morning away. He shakes his head at himself, because it’s a ridiculous thought to have--doing Breakfast is Nick’s dream, and Louis’ just being selfish. He sighs and gets out of bed, pulling on the first pair of clean trackies he finds and one of Nick’s t-shirts before he pads out of the bedroom on socked feet. He hears the click of nails on the floor before he sees Pig and Stinky round the corner towards him, and he crouches down to give them their good morning cuddles. If he can’t get them with Nick, the dogs are the next best thing, right?

“Alright, come on, then,” he says when they start to get a little rowdy, obviously wanting to go out. He grabs their leads off the hooks by the door and slips into his shoes. He makes sure to grab his keys and wallet before he leaves, and at the last moment slips his hand into his pocket and grabs his cigs as well. He takes the dogs to their favorite nearby park, where he can sit on a bench and throw a ball for them to run after. He takes the cigs out of his pocket and lights one up; this is pretty much the only time he gets in a smoke nowadays, since Nick doesn’t like the smell in the house after he quit a few years back. That’s done wonders for Louis’ attempt to cut back, since he’s been papped one too many times standing hunched smoking under a shitty umbrella on their small patio, usually run with some article about how they’re fighting and Nick’s kicking him out. Now he gets a smoke in during his mornings with the pups, and that usually works to tide him over. He finishes his cig and thinks about pulling out another, as he always does, but then he checks the time and realises Nick will be home soon, so he whistles for the dogs and they head back home. 

Louis has time to take a quick shower and brush his teeth before Nick gets home, ridding himself of the smell and taste of cigarette. He’s just stepping out of the bath when he hears the door unlocking and Nick greeting the dogs quietly before he calls out a, “Louis?”

“Bedroom,” Louis calls back, turning to his closet and contemplating what to wear. 

“Well, this is a sight,” Nick says, and Louis turns to see him leaning against the doorjamb, practically leering at Louis. Louis rolls his eyes. 

“Perv,” he says, laughing at the face Nick makes. 

“What, I’m not allowed to ogle my young, fit boyfriend in my own home?” he says, stepping forward to wrap his arms around Louis’ waist. Louis relaxes into his embrace, even as Nick starts to toy with the top of the towel. 

“Not so young anymore,” Louis murmurs, resting his own hands against Nick’s chest, ignoring the garish print on the shirt--for now. It’s true, though, Louis will be 26 at the end of this year--closer now to the age when Nick started doing Breakfast, something Louis gleefully reminds Nick of at any opportunity. 

“What’s that make me, then?” Nick replies, and it doesn’t have the teasing tone that it usually would. Nick just sounds _tired_ , and not the kind Louis hears on the other end of the phone when he’s in LA and Nick can’t sleep well because Louis isn’t sticking his cold toes on him. No, this tired sounds bone deep, and Louis reaches up to run his fingers over the lines by Nick’s eyes, the ones that have become more pronounced in the last year or so. Nick always complains, saying that 33 is too young to be getting wrinkles, but Louis likes them. They show how frequently Nick smiles, how often he laughs, how much happiness he has in his life. Louis thinks they might be one of his favorite features on Nick.

“You alright?” Louis asks. He knows it’s been rough on Nick, since Fiona said she was planning on leaving the show. Nick’s never taken it well when people have left the show, even if he always stays friends with them--he’d joked at Ian and Aimee’s wedding that part of the reason he was glad it worked out for them was that it meant he could keep seeing Ian after he left Breakfast. Fifi’s a bit harder--she’d been there the whole time, nearly six years of early mornings with Nick, and Louis knows Nick’s going to miss her on the show. 

“I’m okay,” Nick says, and he smiles when Louis just looks at him skeptically. “I mean it. Right now, I’m thinking about how convenient it is that you’re in a towel and the bed is just there.” 

“Oh yeah?” Louis asks, smirk playing around his lips. 

“Yeah,” Nick says, leaning in for a kiss. Louis hums against his lips, moving his hands up to link around Nick’s neck. Nick’s hands are gripped in the towel around Louis’ waist, and he slowly turns them, walking Louis backwards the three steps it takes to get to the bed and them pushing Louis down onto it. Nick crawls after him, fitting himself between Louis’ legs and deepening the kiss. Nick finally undoes the knot of the towel, pushing the fabric out of the way and leaving Louis bare against the sheets. Louis moves his hands to start unbuttoning Nick’s shirt, and if he uses a bit more force than usual it’s definitely not to try to rip the silky fabric, rendering the shirt unwearable--of course not. Nick opens his mouth against Louis’ lips, and Louis at first thinks he’s just trying to deepen their kiss even more, but then Nick pulls back a little and Louis realises he’s actually _yawning_. 

“Are you yawning?” he asks, incredulously, moving fully back from Nick’s mouth. 

“No,” Nick says, around a yawn. Louis gives him an unimpressed look. 

“Sorry I’m so uninteresting,” he says, a bit snippily, but _really_. Here he is, naked underneath his boyfriend, and said boyfriend is yawning in his face. 

“Darling, you know it’s not that,” Nick says back, rolling his eyes. “I’m just tired, early wake up and all.” He rolls off Louis, falling onto his side. “And you did keep me up last night.” Louis smirks. 

“You seemed to enjoy it last night,” he says, and Nick smirks back, leaning in for a quick kiss. 

“I certainly did,” he says, and he looks like he wants to say something else but whatever it is gets lost in another yawn. Louis just laughs at him this time. 

“Perhaps it’s time for a nap?” he suggests, and Nick hums, relaxing back into the pillows. He looks half asleep already, and Louis laughs again softly, dropping a kiss on Nick’s forehead before getting out of bed and pulling a pair of boxers on. He doesn’t really have any plans today, so he climbs back into the bed and curls up next to Nick, falling back asleep easily. 

*

Louis doesn’t sleep long--when he wakes up, it’s only been about half an hour since he’d fallen asleep--but Nick is still out cold next to him, so he gets out of bed gingerly and tiptoes into the other room. He puts the telly on low, flicking through the channels until he finds something that interests him. It ends up being some sport news show, and he watches it absentmindedly, messing around on his phone at the same time. It takes probably another 45 minutes for Nick to walk out of the bedroom, his hair a mess and pillow creases imprinted on his cheek. “Hey,” Louis says, and Nick mumbles something back, getting on the couch and cuddling up to Louis. 

Nick is quiet--he doesn’t even complain about the show Louis has on, and he hardly ever likes watching sport. He’d told Louis once that the only way to get him interested in footie would be to have Louis and David Beckham playing naked in their back garden, and then he’d tackled Louis onto the couch when Louis pretended like he was seriously considering it. Louis smiles at the memory, dropping a kiss onto Nick’s shoulder, and Nick hums a little in acknowledgment. Louis figures Nick’s got something on his mind, and that he’ll tell Louis when he’s ready, so he pushes down his curiosity and focuses on the show, smiling softly when Nick picks up his hand and starts playing with his fingers. 

It takes a bit--nearly to the point where Louis’ curiosity would get the best of him and he’d ask Nick what was up--but Nick speaks up eventually. “I’m thinking of leaving Breakfast,” he says softly, and Louis sits up, turning the telly off immediately. 

“What?” he says, not sure if he heard quite right. 

“I’m thinking of leaving Breakfast. Quitting,” Nick says again, and he sounds a bit more sure this time. Louis’ a bit shocked, to say the least. 

“The Breakfast Show is your dream,” Louis says slowly, because it’s true. He remembers back before they were dating, when Nick was really just someone he knew through Harry and a few industry events, how happy Harry’d been for Nick getting the job on Breakfast. He’d said something about it being Nick’s dream since he was a little kid, and Louis had rolled his eyes, said something snide. They’d had a long way to go back then, to get to where they are now. 

“I know, but like, Lou,” Nick starts, and Louis can tell he’s put actual thought into this, it’s not a rash decision, “I’ve done it for six years now. That’s--that’s so long. And I still love it, but I’m _so_ tired. You know I am. I think the last year has been the worst.” Now that Louis thinks about it, he had noticed changes in Nick’s behaviour--he’s needed to take more naps, had a worse time sleeping at night, would always be disoriented and not know what time it was when he woke up. And leaving Breakfast, getting off that terrible schedule, would be better for him. “I don’t want to be tired all the time,” Nick continues. “Especially not once we’ve got kids around.” Louis smiles a little at the mention; they’ve been talking about adoption for a while now, and it would be quite nice to wake up next to Nick, to make breakfast for their kids together. 

“You’re sure?” Louis asks, and when Nick nods at him he nods back. “Then, okay. If you’re sure, I’m going to support whatever decision, yeah?” Nick looks relieved, as though Louis would have said anything else. Louis snorts and pulls him into a kiss. “What’d you think I was going to say?” 

“Dunno,” Nick mutters, “worst case was that you only liked me for my job so you were going to leave me.” Louis bursts out laughing at that, falling back against the couch. Nick follows him, pressing kisses against his lips to quiet him down. 

“Dickhead,” Louis says, lovingly, as he pulls away. “I’m not with you for your _job_. It’s obviously the sex.” 

“Right, right,” Nick says back, “my mistake.” And then he kisses Louis again, and Louis forgets what else he was going to say. 

*

Two weeks later, Nick comes home and says that Greg James had agreed to switch shows with him, meaning Nick can stay on Radio 1 during drivetime and have a much better schedule. Louis smiles at the palpable relief in Nick’s voice--he’d been a bit worried that no one would want to take over his position, or that there wouldn’t be space for him at the Beeb anywhere else. But apparently Big Boss Ben had been accepting of Nick’s decision, and Greg was honored to take over. “It all worked out,” Nick says, leaning against the kitchen counter as they wait for the kettle to finish so they can have their tea. “Now the hard part is that Greg and I can’t say anything for a bit, since they want to schedule the announcement for the show.” 

“You two? Keeping your mouths shut?” Louis laughs. “They’re mad.”

“Oi,” Nick says, but he’s laughing, too. “I can keep my mouth shut.” Louis raises an eyebrow at him suggestively. “Not like _that_ , you wanker,” he says, making Louis laugh more. “Shut up.”

“Make me.” 

So Nick does.

*

On the day Nick makes the announcement, Louis actually gets up with Nick, standing with him in the bathroom as Nick brushes his teeth and does his hair. He wraps his arms around Nick from behind, going up on his tiptoes a bit to rest his chin on Nick’s shoulder. “You can always change your mind,” he says, and Nick smiles a bit.

“Think Greg would be a bit miffed. And, nah, I think it’s time for a bit of a change,” he says, making eye contact with Louis in the mirror. Louis grins back at him, pressing his lips to Nick’s cheek. 

“Sure you don’t want me to come?” he asks, and Nick rolls his eyes this time.

“You’ll steal my thunder, popstar,” he says, and then he turns in Louis’ arms, pressing a kiss to Louis’ lips, then another after Louis makes a protesting noise as he pulls away. “I’m good, love. It’ll be good. I’ll see you when I get home.” 

“Love you,” Louis says as Nick leaves. 

“Love you, too,” Nick calls back, and then he’s gone. Louis turns on the radio, making himself some tea and sitting down with the dogs to listen to Nick’s show. He hears the announcement live, and texts Nick a series of emojis that he knows he’ll interpret as love and support. There’s also a fair few eggplants in there, because Nick should remember the real reason Louis loves him, of course. Nick texts him back during the next song, a simple _**thanks, love xx**_ that warms Louis up from the inside. 

Nick tweets about the news, and Louis retweets it, adding a _**Really proud !! and glad we can finally have a lie in ! x**_. Notifications start piling onto his twitter, but he puts it away, since he’s learned that it’s best not to read his mentions when he tweets about Nick, lest he goes on yet another rampage. And today’s not a good day for that; today’s meant to be all about Nick. Which is exactly what Louis tells him when Nick gets home, causing Nick to smirk at him and then take him to bed, not letting him leave for the rest of the day. It’s fine, though, Louis thinks, especially now that they’ve got all the time in the world. 

*

_September_

The alarm goes off, and Louis groans, turning to bury his face into the pillow as usual. “Soz, soz,” Nick says, and the alarm blessedly goes off. “Must’ve forgotten to turn it off for good,” Nick continues, messing around on his phone for a minute before dropping it back on the bedside table. “There we go.” He pulls Louis back towards him in the bed, setting them up in the position they’d gone to sleep in last night. “Go back to sleep, love,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to Louis’ head, “there’s time before we need to be up.” 

Louis starts to drift off back to sleep, with Nick still in the bed (on a weekday!) for the first time in a long while, and he thinks that he could most certainly get used to this. 

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr [here](http://foliealou.tumblr.com/) and the post for this fic [here](http://foliealou.tumblr.com/post/174442706291/something-changed-in-the-atmosphere-i-could-get)


End file.
